Countrydiction

People will talk about the Cats-Spartan game forever. I am horse from screaming at the referrees. There's a reason why the video screens at the games don't show replays like you are accustomed to seeing at home. It keeps the crowds from becoming even more incensed at the officials. This game was an extraordinary chess match between two masters, Tubby and Izzo. Too bad Tubby had to lose, because I love the job he's doing, but he is going to start catching more hell from the UK fans for his drought of Final Fours since '98. Morris had his game, as well as most everybody else, with the glaring exception of Kallena Azabuike. What a shame he didn't show up, our best scorer... The 17,000 seat arena filled up with lot's of non-UK and non-MSU basketball fans. The vast majority rooted for the underdog, Michigan State. Chuck, we're going to miss you, man.

What a country! I rode 750 miles last Thursday, but I'm still in the South. As a Blue-Blood Kentucky Wildcat fan able and willing to jump through hoops to follow our team, I deployed to Austin to stay with cuzin Darrell and attend the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight in one glorious weekend. Darrell and I staked a claim in a ticket line Friday morning to attempt to get two of a bundle of tickets released at the last minute by Michigan State. The rumors were that the amount of tickets to go on sale were 150 to 200. We waited from 7:00 till 10:00 a.m. when the ticket booth opened. The wait was a classic example of how ugly a situation can get when thes re is a line of true sports fans being infiltrated by professional broker/scalpers. Healthy optimism degraded into chaotic confrontation when we could not get event coordinators or campus police (the arena is the University of Texas property) to intervene. Without law and order (wild west?) you get unfettered human nature, and the ...

Ozzie had a playmate, a one year old mix mutt, that belonged to a neighbor. He got shot. Then there was the female rottweiler that came around, but a neighbor took it off to the pound. Another showed up, a blue heeler or some kind of herder dog with silver eyes and unbounding energy, but he got into another neighbor's chicken coop and they apparently snuffed him out because I found buzzards dining on the carcas. There is a golden retriever that has visited a couple times lately. I hope he survives because Oz needs playmates. Oslo has the run of the neighborhood but he behaves and is a sweetheart and is a handsome beast. I would not want to be fenced in, so I don't intend to fence in my dog. He made me laugh again. I was setting at the computer, my stomach growled...Oslo went wild. He didn't know what he heard but he jumped up and growled himself and rushed for the door, probably thinking 'Who dat?'

A couple months ago I heard about the Arizona Minuteman Project, an effort to gather 1,000 volunteer US citizens to spend one month, April 2005, near the Arizona/Mexico border. I found the website to get some information because it intrigued me and I wanted to see what the group meant to accomplish. The majority of volunteers at the time were veterans, especially retired military members. Right down my alley. The intent is for Minutemen to monitor the border around the clock for a month to guage the usefulness of our border control and to observe illegal aliens coming across the border and then report the illegal entry to the border patrol. There is to be no physical contact with the illegals. Volunteers must bear all individual expenses. Since I don't have adequate camping gear and dogs are not allowed I did not volunteer. Today, President Bush is meeting with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. Dubya stated that the Minutemen are vigilantes! President Fox loved it. Many U...

Sea level sucks! Kidding. I do love Colorado though...the whole west for that matter. So, I stumbled across a website for the Colorado Outward Bound Relay and found a team looking for runners and I signed up! If I was wealthier I would have a place in the Rockies and my place here near the coast and I would split my time between them. What also attracts me to this endeavor is that it gives me incentive to plug through the summer with my training. Usually, my running bogs down in the humidity and heat down here. I will just have to get it done by doing it at daybreak which will be somewhat bearable at around 75 degrees. I contacted a cousin in Colorado Springs to see if I could stay at her place. Even though she's going to be on vacation in Ireland at that time, she's offered her house for my use. Her daughter, Erin, will be nearby, and I have another cousin and her family in the Springs area, so I'm set. Been doing my research and I'll have to go out there a week ...

I haven't heard from the newspaper in awhile so I assume I am no longer under consideration for a columnist job. It was exciting to be in the running for awhile anyways. Thank heavens for this outlet for expressing myself with the written language and with graphics.

I'll never forget a conversation I had at the table one evening while I was in the seminary. It was in the fall of 2003, a few months after we entered Iraq. My 'heated' conversation was with a Benedictine monk, Fr. Patrick, who was an Air Force Reserve chaplain and had recently spent 30 days in Qatar where the US military placed its command and control center for conducting the ground war in Iraq. Two facets of our chat stand out clearly in my memory. One argument of Fr. Pat's was that democracy was not a realistic possibility in the Middle East. I had stated that freedom from tyranny was the over-riding justification for the US intervention in that region, and the removal of Hussein was the imperative, first step that had to be taken. Hussein was a thug who threatened and killed his own people and his neighbor's people. Take this monster down, then see if the Iraqis would thrive in freedom. Also, Fr. Pat insisted that the insurgents (terrorists) were, on th...

Ego, temperment, urges, self-control...these boys look a lot alike. Heck, I'm sure they are interchangeable in their job skills too!

The January 30th election day in Iraq can be equated to the hole in the dike. Let us reframe this children's tale in this way; the dike is the totalitarian and autocratic network of despots and dictators with their supporting cast of terrorists, insurgents, and nihilists; the sea being held back is the human desire for freedom. The plans for the Iraqi election caused a breach in the dike and this created a threat to the status quo. Non other than Hans, the would be hero, shows up to find a trickle passing through the hole in the dike. In this little analogy Hans represents the brotherhood or coterie comprised of the academic elitists, the left wing of the Democratic Party/Hollywood, the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, CBS, and NPR. Like the mighty Mississippi River the oppressed people can only be contained for so long. The left wing naysayers said to delay the Iraqi elections because the people were not ready. Since the election the hole in the dike has opened to ...

I received a call I was hoping for yesterday. The editor of the local newspaper called to tell me that I made the final round of a half a dozen or so writers selected from 50 plus submissions. I was asked to provide another 550 word piece with a deadline of 5:00 p.m. Friday (tomorrow). If I get this break into the world of mainstream media I will seek to emulate my idols...Victor Davis Hanson, Mark Steyn, and Jonah Goldberg.

Someone who knows these things told us in the Master Gardener class last Thursday that the aquifer from which we get our drinking water will fall to distressing levels within 10 years! Florida, because of its sandy, porous soil (which needs irrigation in addition to the rainfall for upkeep of turf grass), and other reasons, is the highest domestic water user in the US. Now, Florida can't take all the blame for aquifer levels when its northern boundaries are in South Carolina and Georgia and the flow is from north to south. In the class the scrutiny was directed at Walton County, our county, and we are part of the problem...big time! It is common to see automatic sprinkler systems operating during rainstorms. Since 1992, Walton Co has a code which requires rain shut-off devices to be installed with any irrigation system. Sounds good and they work very well, however! There are not near enough inspectors to enforce the law AND landscaper businesses in our county are not required...